Walking the dog I came across the grave of a young man who had survived all the way through the Great War, only to suffer an absurdly tragic fate on Armistice Day, even as the rest of the world was celebrating the end of the killing and the arrival of peace. Here is his story.
Tag Archives: Remembrance Day
“Those were my pals.” Listening to Henry Allingham, the boy who saw the Somme from the air in 1917
Watching the movie 1917 reminded me of meeting Henry Allingham. He saw WG Grace bat. He saw the battle of the Somme from the air in an aircraft made of wood, cloth and wire. He was the oldest man in the country when I met him in 2007 and he lived to be the oldest man in the world, dying just over a year later at 113.
Where do we look for heroes today?
Where do we look for heroes, today of all days? Not at the war memorial. They have almost all gone away. There used to be soldiers, sailors, airmen, Waafs and Wrens everywhere, even if they were mostly invisible. The elderly gent shuffling home from the supermarket with a budget meal for one, a survivor ofContinue reading “Where do we look for heroes today?”